taken place just before
he visited the spot. This palpable progress towards the complete
extinction of the relics of one of the finest Gothic buildings in
Scotland, certainly rendered it not only justifiable but highly
praiseworthy that the Exchequer should make some effort for preserving
so much of the pile as was preservable. Restoration was not to be
expected--the preservation of the existing fragments was all that
could be reasonably looked for. It must be confessed, however, that
the operations, by means of which this service was accomplished, have
given no picturesque aid to the mass of ruins, but have rather
introduced a new element of discordance and confusion, in the contrast
between the cold, flat, new surfaces of masonry and the rugged,
weatherbeaten ruins in which they are embodied.

There are few buildings in which the Norman and the early English are
so closely blended, and the transition so gentle. The great western
door has the Norman arch, with an approach to the later types in some
of its rather peculiar mouldings, while the broad and equally peculiar
gallery above it--the only interior portion of the church remaining in
a state of preservation--shows the pointed arch, with all the
simplicity of the Norman pillar and capital. All the material
fragments of the church now remaining are represented in the four
accompanying plates, from which as full an idea of the shape and
character of the remains may be derived as the visitor could acquire
on the spot. It will be seen that over the gallery, at the western end
of the nave, there widens the lower arc of a circular window, which
must have been of great size. The only portions of the aisle windows
still existing are on the south side of the nave. None of the central
pillars remain, but their bases have been carefully laid bare: and it
is supposed, from the greater size of those at the meeting of the
cross, that here there had been a great central tower.

Among the tombs of more modern date, in the grave-yard near the
church, there are many which bear sculptural marks of a very remote
antiquity; and among the ornaments they present, the primitive form of
the cross is conspicuous. During the operations for cleaning out the
ruins, which were conducted under the authority of the Exchequer in
1815,[3] some pieces of monumental sculpture were discovered, two of
which are curious and remarkable. The one is the mutilated figure of a
dignified churchman--probably